The banners in Bowser’s throne room still hung in tatters.

Charred ribbons drifted across the black stone floor, reminders of a wedding that had never happened.

He could still hear Princess Peach’s voice.

“You really thought I’d marry a monster like you?”

Then the flames.

The grand cathedral he’d built inside his castle, the flowers his minions had spent weeks arranging, the feast prepared for hundreds of guests—it had all been reduced to ash.

Afterward, Bowser shut the castle gates.

The kidnappings stopped.

The grand invasions stopped.

Even the Koopa Troopas whispered that their king had changed.

News eventually reached the Dark Lands.

Peach had married Mario.